Abstract

Increasing carbon emissions from large-scale human activities have contributed to global climate change, which has resulted in an increase in significant human crises. Therefore, as carbon abatement is a public good, coping with climate change is also a public-good; however, it suffers from many free-rider incentives, leading to a tragedy of the commons. Overcoming this challenge from a systemic perspective, requires that all sectors such as industry, government, and citizens on global, national, and regional levels engage in low-carbon development and the implementation of fair and efficient climate policies. Through a theoretical exploration of carbon abatement and a systemic description of low-carbon systems, this paper developed a cybernetic framework for coping with climate change, which consists of a cloud platform for data analysis, meta-synthetic engineering for decision support, a polycentric approach to extensive consultation and various functional goal achievement modules. On this basis, by combining the “invisible hand” and “visible hand” and by integrating negotiation at the global level, cooperation at the national level and knowledge at the local level, a multilevel policymaking model is proposed to address complex climate change problems. This cybernetic paradigm based innovative approach could provide valuable illumination to stakeholders seeking to cope with climate change.

Keywords

Cybernetics climate change carbon abatement public good low-carbon development

Yi Lu is an associate professor in Sichuan University. He obtained his Ph.D. in technical economics and management from Sichuan University in 2012. Dr. Lu is the Vice Director in Institute of Emergency Management and Reconstruction in Post-disaster of Sichuan University. He is also a researcher in Engineering Research Center of Low Carbon Technology and Economy of Sichuan University. His research interests focus on low-carbon development and post-disaster reconstruction.

Jiuping Xu is a professor in Sichuan University. He obtained his Ph.D. of applied mathematics from Tsinghua University, Beijing, China; and Ph.D. of physical chemistry from Sichuan University, Chengdu, China, in 1995 and 1999, respectively. Prof. Xu has been appointed as an Academician of the International Academy of Systems and Cybernetic Sciences since 2010. He is the Honorary Academician of Academy of Sciences of Moldova, and the Foreign Academician of Mongolian National Academy of Sciences. He has published over 40 books by Springer, Taylor & Francis, and over 400 international peer-reviewed journal papers in areas of uncertainty decision making, systems engineering, economic theorem, and information science. His current research interests include low carbon economics, uncertainty decision making, and complex systems with applications.

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Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the Major Bidding Program of National Social Science Foundation of China (No. 12&ZD217), the Program of the Social Science Foundation of Sichuan (Grant No. SC16C010), and the Research Funding of Sichuan University (Grant No. skqy201640; 2016SCU11036). The authors thank the editor and the anonymous referees whose comments and suggestions have significantly improved the quality of the paper.